Strong Blood: A Daughter Story

Daughter lifts her arms up to the sky and proclaims, “Look at me, Mommy! I’m a STRONG WOMAN!” I start laughing and she laughs too. “Okay, I’m not a strong woman, I’m not a woman yet. I’m still a little girl!”

“You are,” I say. “But you’re going to grow up to be a strong woman. You know why?”

“Why?” she asks as she turns to face me.

I towel off her face and her shoulders. “Because Mommy’s a strong woman. And my mommy’s a strong woman. And you know what? My grandmother Abi was a strong woman too.” I touch her nose. “It runs in the family.”

“I’m going to be a strong woman!” she proclaims.

I brush her hair. “Yes, you are. Now go on there, strong girl.”

I watch her dart off, howling, “YIPPEE!” and think about my mother and my grandmother, who fled a country in revolutionary chaos to build new lives in a foreign land. I grew up thinking that blood flowed through my veins: the blood of immigrants, the blood of survivors. I’m not a tough person by nature, but it gave me courage.

It gave me strength.

Now it’s time for me to pass it on.

I hear her from the other room, talking to her paternal grandmother: “I’m going to be a strong woman!”

Yes, love. Yes, you are. And I’ll do everything in my power to help you make it so.

Welcome!

I'm M.C.A. Hogarth, author and artist. I write science fiction, fantasy and humor, along with business columns for artists (recently transformed into a web comic, the Three Jaguars).

I've written a lot of stories! You can check out where to start here or browse at your leisure. Thanks for stopping by! And if you'd like to get in contact with me directly, you can find me at haikujaguar at gmail.